Building a human rights agenda fit for 21st-century realities

In Johannesburg, a 54-year-old Gugu, in an interview with the BBC, carefully counted the antiretroviral pills she had left. The clinic where she received treatment, funded by USAid, has closed due to reduced US aid. 

At her last visit, staff gave her a nine-month supply instead of the usual three. Gugu works with pregnant sex workers to help them get treatment and prevent HIV transmission to their children. Now she worries about what will happen when her medication runs out, since no clinic remains to care for her.

Gugu's story is not only about health but also human rights, capturing the quiet crisis at the heart of human rights in Africa. On paper, she has the right to the highest attainable standard of health under South Africa's Constitution, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and many ratified treaties. What she lacks is a system that makes that right meaningful when the pharmacy shelf is empty.

For decades, human rights formed the foundation of a powerful promise to Africans. While many post-independence governments viewed rights language with suspicion as a challenge to state authority, citizens embraced it with hope. Human rights promised dignity instead of humiliation, justice instead of impunity and participation instead of exclusion. Across the continent, people risked imprisonment, exile and even death pursuing these ideals. Journalists exposed abuses, lawyers challenged arbitrary power and activists organised communities demanding accountability. Human rights became a vehicle for imagining a better future.

Yet for many Africans today, that future remains stubbornly out of reach. The continent has made undeniable progress. Constitutional protections have expanded and courts have become stronger in many countries. The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights established a distinctive framework combining civil and political rights with social, economic, collective and peoples' rights. African institutions have developed an important body of jurisprudence and norms over the past four decades.

And yet millions continue to experience lives defined by poverty, inequality, insecurity, corruption, displacement and exclusion. Democracy has expanded in some places while retreating in others. Civic space is shrinking across many countries. Youth unemployment remains stubbornly high. Climate shocks are rendering entire livelihoods precarious. 

The gap between rights guaranteed on paper and dignity experienced in practice remains enormous. It has produced something that human rights advocates have been reluctant to confront directly: disillusionment. For a young graduate unable to find work, discussions about democratic rights can seem disconnected from daily struggles for survival. For communities displaced by extractive industries or climate disasters, legal guarantees often seem distant and ineffective. For citizens confronting growing economic inequality, human rights can appear to protect freedoms without adequately addressing the conditions required to enjoy them. The result is not indifference to rights but a growing crisis of relevance.

At the same time, the international environment that helped sustain the modern human rights movement is undergoing profound change. For decades, however imperfectly, Western democracies presented themselves as champions of a ‘rules-based’ international order grounded in human rights. Today, that claim carries less weight than it once did. 

Across Europe and North America, migration control, economic nationalism, geopolitical rivalry and security concerns increasingly shape policy choices. Governments that once championed universal ideals often appear willing to suspend or selectively apply the principles when they conflict with domestic political interests. Whether in their responses to refugees, conflicts, surveillance practices or international crises, many Western governments struggle to reconcile their rhetoric with their actions.

The selective application of human rights principles has deepened scepticism toward a system that often appears inconsistent and politically contingent. When rights are defended vigorously in some contexts and overlooked in others, the credibility of the entire project suffers.

But this moment must not be understood as evidence that human rights have failed. Rather, it is an opportunity to renew them. Africa does not need fewer human rights; it needs a human rights vision that speaks more directly to current realities. Reimagining human rights is not about abandoning universal principles or lowering standards of accountability. It means ensuring that rights are rooted in people's everyday experiences and aspirations. It entails recognising that dignity is shaped not only by protection from state abuse but also by economic opportunity, social inclusion, environmental security and meaningful participation in public life.

Many of the most notable political movements of recent years reveal a population that continues to believe in rights, even if it is dissatisfied with institutions. Two-thirds of Africans (66%) prefer democracy to any other system, yet only 37% are satisfied with how democracy works where they live, with satisfaction falling sharply over a decade (Afrobarometer).

Across the continent, young Africans are demonstrating that they believe in the underlying promise of rights. What they increasingly reject is a version of human rights that feels disconnected from their real-life experiences. The same is true in areas affected by climate change, conflict and economic precarity. Communities confronting drought, flooding, displacement or exclusion are asking practical questions: What do rights mean when livelihoods disappear? What forms of protection are needed in a world transformed by climate shocks, technological disruption and shifting geopolitical power? These are not peripheral questions. They are becoming the defining questions of our time.

Fortunately, Africa is uniquely positioned to answer them. Long before debates about decolonising human rights emerged, the African Charter advanced a more holistic conception of dignity. It recognised not only individual freedoms but also collective rights, development, solidarity and the responsibilities that tie individuals to their communities. This intellectual heritage affords a valuable foundation for thinking beyond narrow and often imported understandings of rights. 

The challenge is to build a future-fit human rights agenda that can respond to 21st-century realities. Such an agenda must engage seriously with inequality, climate justice, digital governance, youth aspirations and the changing relationship between citizens and states. It must address freedom and fairness. It must protect individuals while recognising the relevance of community and social solidarity.

This conversation cannot be left to experts alone. That is why the regional consultations being convened by the Open Society Foundations, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights are necessary and long overdue. Beginning with Southern Africa, the dialogues aim to bring together human rights defenders, social movements, community leaders, researchers, policymakers, national human rights institutions and young people to reflect on the future of rights on the continent. Their purpose is to listen, challenge assumptions, identify emerging priorities and help reconnect human rights with the realities of African lives. 

If human rights are to remain relevant, they must help create the conditions for people to live with dignity, opportunity, security and hope.

Tem Fuh Mbuh is programme manager for Transformative Peace in Africa at the Open Society Foundations.